AT&T, Comcast to help RIAA's anti piracy efforts

Late last year the RIAA revealed that they would finally stop filing mass lawsuits against file sharers in favor of a new strategy that would see the burden shift to ISPs. Under the proposed system, service providers would send warning letters to those illegally serving up music, while adopting a three strikes system to suspend or cut off a repeat offender’s internet access altogether.

The announcement was met with both praise and criticism. Regardless, it appears that plans are moving forward, with AT&T and Comcast expected to be among a group of ISPs that will cooperate with the music industry in battling illegal file sharing. The companies have yet to sign a formal agreement though and, according to CNET, they both could still back out from the plan as some details are left to be worked out – like who would pay to send the takedown notices, how the ISPs would make up the lost revenue from booting users and who’ll oversee the fairness of the system which is of course prone to error.